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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30100959">I Won’t Stay Hidden Anymore</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohlooksomethingshiny/pseuds/ohlooksomethingshiny'>ohlooksomethingshiny</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Zukka Week 2021 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Post-Canon, Secretly Dating, Shenanigans, Sokka and Zuko are idiots, Zukka Week 2021, but when are they not</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:01:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,183</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30100959</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohlooksomethingshiny/pseuds/ohlooksomethingshiny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sokka and Zuko have been together almost a whole year. </p><p>...but they haven’t told their friends yet.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Zukka Week 2021 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2205990</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>202</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I Won’t Stay Hidden Anymore</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A few years after the war, Zuko and Sokka finally got their shit together and started dating. It had been a long time coming, they had been dancing around each other since the boiling rock.</p><p>But they hadn’t told their friends yet.</p><p>It wasn’t even a conscious choice they made, it just sort of happened. Since Zuko was the fire lord, they didn't want to send something like that out in a letter, just in case it fell into the wrong hands. And when they had last seen their friends in person, it had been so new that they weren’t sure they wanted to bring it up, just in case it went wrong.</p><p>Plus at first, the sneaking around had been pretty fun. Sokka doesn’t think there’s a closet in the Fire Lord’s Palace that he hasn’t dragged Zuko into (or been dragged by Zuko) for a kiss in between meetings.</p><p>Then as more and more time passed, it became harder and harder to just casually bring it up to their friends.</p><p>Now they’d been together almost a year and things were really, really good. Sokka wanted to shout from the rooftops how much he loved his boyfriend… but he probably needed to tackle telling his sister first.</p><p>Oh fuck, Katara was going to kill him for not telling her immediately.</p><p>...So maybe they wait a little longer. He’d hate to ruin Zuko’s birthday celebration by being murdered.</p><p>That was another thing, for the first time since Zuko and Sokka started dating, all their friends would be together in the fire nation for the festival celebrating Zuko’s birthday that weekend. (Zuko was a little embarrassed by all the festivities each year. He may have been the Fire Lord but he didn’t think he needed a whole country-wide celebration. His boyfriend disagreed. But that may have been because of the food they had at these things.)</p><p>Sokka had no idea how he was going to keep himself from doing something coupley with Zuko. In the year they had been dating, most of the palace had figured out that they were together. So they were a little more used to being open with their affection than they were in the beginning. But Sokka is determined to do his best to keep this hidden, just for the weekend. And then they’ll figure out how to tell their friends and family.</p><p>Sokka almost blows it the first morning everyone is there. Because when has anything ever gone according to plan?</p><p>They’re all at breakfast. Aang is hogging all the egg custard tarts, Katara is nagging Toph about something, and Sokka feels like he’s back in the good old days. Well, the good part of the good old days. The times spent with friends traveling the world and not the fact that they had to fight a war as kids.</p><p>Zuko was lucky enough to have been able to clear his schedule in preparation for his guests but Sokka unfortunately has one more meeting to get to before he can enjoy the weekend with his friends. He forces himself to get up from the table to go do his job.</p><p>“Okay, I’ll see you later, gotta get to my meeting,” Sokka says, walking forward without thinking, grabbing Zuko’s face and kissing him on the forehead, an action he’s done many times.</p><p>When he pulls back, Zuko is staring at him wide eyed. He turns around and finds Aang, his sister and Suki also staring at him like he’d grown a second head. (Toph however, wasn’t staring but she did look a little bit shocked.)</p><p>Well, so much for keeping it a secret. He can't believe he’s blown it on the very first day.</p><p>Then, in a typical stroke of Sokka brilliance, he thinks of a way to save face. He turns and walks confidently over to Aang. “Bye to you too, Aang,” he says, kissing his forehead too.</p><p>He turns to Katara next. “My favorite sister,” he greets, giving her a forehead kiss of her own.</p><p>“Suki!” He exclaims, walking over and planting his lips on her forehead as well.</p><p>“And last but not least, Toph,” he says, then kisses the top of her head. She wrinkles her nose at the touch.</p><p>“Bye, love you all!” he exclaims, finally leaving the room. The rest of them stare at each other in confusion.</p><p>“What the hell was that?” Katara asks.</p><p>Zuko flounders for a moment before blurting, “I have no idea! Maybe it’s something he picked up in… the Earth Kingdom?” He hopes that didn’t sound too suspicious. Looking around the table, he thinks maybe they haven’t been figured out. But then again, judging by the way Toph narrows her eyes, she may be onto him.</p><p>“I thought it was nice!” Aang says, “We should do that more often!”</p><p>Toph pretends to gag. “Absolutely not. Affection is gross.”</p><p>All Zuko can think is how grateful he is that Sokka didn’t go with a full on the lips goodbye kiss. That would have been awkward to explain. Not to mention the fact that his sister and ex girlfriend were in the room and kissing them would have just been weird. Not that the forehead thing wasn’t weird too, it was just... less weird.</p><p>The conversation shifts away from Sokka’s odd behavior and Zuko thinks they might have gotten away with it until Toph pulls him aside after everyone else has walked off.</p><p>“You were lying earlier,” She says.</p><p>“What?” He says, honestly not even remembering what he lied about.</p><p>Toph sticks her finger in his face and waves it around as she makes her point. “Don’t play dumb with me. Is there something going on between you and Sokka?”</p><p>Zuko sputters for a moment, “No! Why would you say that?”</p><p>“You’re lying,” Toph sing-songs, grinning. “You and I both know the kissing thing isn’t something he picked up in the Earth kingdom. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to but I’m happy for you.”</p><p>“Thanks, Toph.” He said, giving her a small smile.</p><p>“No problem. Now tell Sokka if he ever kisses me like that again I will crush him with a rock.”</p><p>Zuko laughs at that. “I’ll let him know.”</p><p>—————</p><p>Sokka decides he’s not going to let the breakfast disaster stop him. He just needs to be sneakier when he’s trying to romance his boyfriend around his friends.</p><p>He decides to kidnap Zuko for some alone time. He spends most of his meeting not paying attention and instead planning the perfect, most romantic birthday picnic. Surely their friends won’t miss them for an hour or two.</p><p>When the meeting finishes, Sokka heads straight for the kitchen to gather the things he needs. He gets a basket, and fills it with foods he knows Zuko enjoys. He also grabs some candles to set the mood and a blanket to make sure they’ll be comfortable. He’s on his way to find some flowers for Zuko when he runs into Suki in the hallway.</p><p>“Hey, where are you off to?” She asks.</p><p>“Oh, I was just thinking about having a picnic.” He says, ‘Okay, see you later!” He tries to leave as quickly as possible before she can ask more questions.</p><p>Her face lights up. “A picnic? That sounds so fun! We should see if anyone else wants to come!”</p><p>Sokka doesn’t know how to turn her down without revealing that he was intending for this picnic to be a date with his secret boyfriend. “Yeah, okay, whatever.” He says, not really trying to hide his true feelings about his date being crashed. Maybe it’s rude, because he sees Zuko more often than he gets to see his friends but he really was looking forward to getting some time to be just the two of them.</p><p>Suki doesn’t seem to notice. Or if she does, she just doesn’t comment on it. She spots Aang at the end of the hall and calls out, “Aang! Want to have a picnic with us?”</p><p>Aang beams. “Okay! I love picnics!”</p><p>Great. So now the attendees for Sokka’s romantic picnic include his ex girlfriend and his sister’s boyfriend. Just like he intended.</p><p>And it just gets worse when Katara and Toph get invited too. Now they’re just having a friend picnic.</p><p>They do end up tracking down Zuko and inviting him as well, so it ends up kind of being like what Sokka had planned. He still gets to spend time with Zuko, but if things had gone according to plan they’d be doing a lot more kissing right now.</p><p>Sokka makes a mental note to plan another picnic just for the two of them, and then lets himself enjoy the time with the gang all together. He really is glad to have them all there, even if they’re a bunch of date crashers.</p><p>—————</p><p>That night, Sokka heads to Zuko’s room, same as he does most nights. They were going to stay in their separate rooms while their friends were staying in the palace, but Sokka figures after their date got crashed, they deserve some alone time. </p><p>There’s a bit more sneaking involved than usual, just to ensure that he doesn't run into anyone in the hall that will ask questions. </p><p>He knocks on the door and Zuko immediately pulls him inside and kisses him.</p><p>“Why do I feel like I haven’t seen you at all today?” Sokka asks, once his lips are free.</p><p>“Let’s never hang out with our friends again and just stay here in my room forever.”</p><p>“Sold,” Sokka says, kissing him again.</p><p>Before they can get too into it, there’s a knock on the door.</p><p>“Wow, are you expecting your other lover tonight?” Sokka teases, as Zuko goes to open the door. He opens it enough to peak his head out and see who it is.</p><p>Turns out it's Katara. So Zuko opens the door further.</p><p>“Hey, Zuko. I just had a question—Sokka? What are you doing here?” She asks.</p><p>“Oh, you know, just getting some work done with my pal Zuko here.”</p><p>Katara raises an eyebrow. “In the middle of the night?”</p><p>“...Well what are you doing here in the middle of the night?” Sokka fires back.</p><p>Katara rolls her eyes. “I just saw the light coming from under the door and figured Zuko was still awake so I came to ask a question about the festivities tomorrow but clearly I’m interrupting some very important work here. So I guess I’ll just go.”</p><p>And Sokka doesn’t mean to make his sister feel unwelcome, but also he kind of does. He just wants to be able to kiss his boyfriend in peace. He’ll have to apologize later for how quickly he ushers her out and then shuts the door in her face though.</p><p>—————</p><p>The next day, Suki and Katara corner Zuko and Sokka as they leave Zuko’s room.</p><p>“So,” Suki starts, “Do you think we’re total idiots?”</p><p>“Uh, no?” Zuko offers, sounding more like a question than an answer.</p><p>“We know you guys are sleeping together,” Suki says.</p><p>“How long has this been going on?” Katara demands.</p><p>“Whoa, whoa, whoa, You think we’re sleeping together?” Sokka asks. They’re not necessarily wrong, but there’s also more to it than that. It’s also a little weird that the girl he used to date and his sister are the ones orchestrating this confrontation. </p><p>“Duh,” Suki says, “And don’t even try to tell us you don’t have a friends with benefits thing going on here. We know what we’ve seen this weekend.”</p><p>Sokka laughs, “No, actually we don’t.” Suki scoffs as Sokka reaches over to grab Zuko’s hand. He looks over to Zuko for confirmation that he’s also ready to tell them, and he nods. So Sokka says, “I love him.”</p><p>That seems to surprise Suki and Katara.</p><p>“Oh,” Katara says, “We just thought you guys were trying to do a casual thing, not that you had actually admitted you were in love! That’s so great!”</p><p>Suki lets out a sigh of relief. “I was so worried we were going to have to convince you guys that you had feelings for each other!”</p><p>Sokka’s just beginning to let his guard down since they seem to be taking the news of their relationship better than expected. He’s a little premature on that one because then Katara asks, “How long have you guys been together?”</p><p>“Almost a year,” Zuko admits.</p><p>Katara screeches, “A YEAR? And you didn’t tell us?!”</p><p>So maybe Sokka won't escape this weekend without his sister trying to murder him a little bit.</p><p>—————</p><p>Later that night, Sokka finally kisses Zuko in front of his friends. His sister groans and Toph and Suki whoop as annoyingly as they can. When they break apart, Aang bounces over and kisses Zuko straight on the nose.</p><p>“Uh, Aang?” Zuko asks, “What was that for buddy?”</p><p>‘Oh, Are we not doing that anymore? Bummer, I thought it was nice.” Aang says.</p><p>Toph laughs, “I think Zuko would prefer to only be kissed by Sokka,”</p><p>And Sokka is more than happy to do just that.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Me writing something that’s not a modern AU??? Wild. </p><p>Title from The Prom! (shameless plug... check out my Zukka AU based on that very musical <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28449816/chapters/69715101/">here</a> if ya want)</p><p>My tumblr is ohlook-somethingshiny if you want to come say hi! Or click <a href="https://ohlook-somethingshiny.tumblr.com/">here</a> :) </p><p>Thanks for reading!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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